It could be the stuff of science fiction, or at least something that looks straight out of a James Bond film but one of the world’s first flying cars has just completed several test flights.

The personal air and land vehicle or PAL-V for short, has been developed in the Netherlands.
Its designers hope to put the machine into production very soon and stress how easy it will be to learn how to handle.

“A normal drivers licence. And for flying a personal or private pilot’s licence and that’s something you get in around 20 to 30 hours lessons. So it’s pretty easy in a gyrocopter. It’s a gyrocopter and that’s the easiest way of flying, also the safest way of flying,” explained PAL-V CEO Robert Dingemanse.

It has a top speed of around 180 kilometres an hour whether in the air or on the ground and it only needs a 165 metre stretch of tarmac or grass to take to the skies.

Although it will be a while before its commercially available, the fly/drive car looks set to make traffic jams a thing of the past for fortunate high fliers